1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a harness slack absorbing apparatus to be employed in a sliding door of an automobile or the like, and more particularly to an apparatus for absorbing a slack of a wire harness due to opening and closing movements of the sliding door, by means of a resilient member, in order to attain continuous supply of electric power from a vehicle body to the sliding door, wherein the wire harness is supported by a harness support member attached to a distal end portion of the resilient member.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are disposed in a sliding door of a one boxed car, for example, various functional components for electrical equipment and auxiliary equipment, such as a power window motor, a switch unit for actuating the motor, a window monitor sensor, etc.
In order to supply electric currents of power or signal to these functional components, a wire harness is installed from a vehicle body side (from a battery) to the sliding door and connected to the functional components. The supply of the power must be conducted at any time irrespective of opening and closing movements of the sliding door.
However, in order to continuously charge the wire harness with electric power, opening and closing strokes of the sliding door must be absorbed by expanding and contracting the door side wire harness along with the opening and closing movements of the sliding door. For this purpose, various additional components for absorbing a slack of the wire harness, such as guide rails, sliders, arm members have been required. As the results, there have been problems such as an increase of the components in number, a complicated structure, high cost, a large size and an increase in weight of the sliding door.
Unless such a slack absorbing apparatus is employed, the wire harness will be slackened when the sliding door is opened or closed, and caught between the sliding door and the vehicle body, or the wire harness may vibrate with vibration of the vehicle while driving and interfere with other components, causing strange noises or damages.
There also have been such a problem that a number of steps are required in fixing the wire harness to arm members by a band or tape winding, resulting in inferior assembling workability, and such an anxiety that when the wire harness happens to be loosened or disengaged from the arm members during use, the wire harness may be caught between the sliding door and the vehicle body and broken, or strange noises or damages may occur due to an interference between the wire harness and the arm members.
In view of the above described circumstances, the object of the present invention is to provide a harness slack absorbing apparatus which is simple in structure, not only reliably absorbs a slack of a wire harness but also enhances assembling workability of the wire harness as well as the apparatus itself, and further, can reliably prevent strange noises and damages due to disengagement and interference of the wire harness.
In order to attain the above described object, according to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a harness slack absorbing apparatus comprising a resilient member, a harness support member attached to a distal end portion of the resilient member, and a wire harness supported by the harness support member and pushed upward by resilience of the resilient member thereby to absorb a slack of the wire harness, wherein the harness support member includes a recess in which the wire harness is held.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, the recess has a curved shape in cross section.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, the harness support member is provided at its distal end with a curved or inclined face which is continued from the recess in a shape along a bending direction of the wire harness.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the recess of the harness support member has a depth at least larger than a radius of the wire harness.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, guide faces for introducing the wire harness are formed at upper edges of the recess.
According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, the harness support member includes a support member body and a lid respectively having recesses, the recesses being joined together to form a harness insertion bore, whereby the wire harness is held by the support member body and the lid along an entire circumference thereof.
According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, the support member body and the lid are locked by locking means.
According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, the support member body and the lid are connected by a hinge so as to be opened and closed.
According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, the harness support member includes an insertion slit for receiving the resilient member, and locking means for locking the resilient member inside the insertion slit.
The present invention also relates to a harness slack absorbing apparatus comprising a resilient member, a harness support member attached to a distal end portion of the resilient member, and a wire harness supported by the harness support member and pushed upward by resilience of the resilient member thereby to absorb a slack of the wire harness, wherein the harness support member is provided at its distal end with a curved or inclined face in a shape along a bending direction of the wire harness.
The present invention further relates to a harness slack absorbing apparatus comprising a resilient member, a harness support member attached to a distal end portion of the resilient member, and a wire harness supported by the harness support member and pushed upward by resilience of the resilient member thereby to absorb a slack of the wire harness, wherein the harness support member includes an insertion slit for receiving the resilient member, and locking means for locking the resilient member inside the insertion slit.
According to the first aspect, the wire harness can be stably supported by the recess of the harness support member, at the distal end portion of the resilient member. Accordingly, a work for setting the wire harness to the harness support member can be facilitated, and the wire harness can be accurately positioned, thus enhancing assembling workability. It is also apparent that a slack of the wire harness can be reliably absorbed by a simple structure including the resilient member and the harness support member.
According to the second aspect, by abutting an outer circumference of the wire harness having a round or oval shape in cross section against the curved face of the recess, the wire harness can be supported in a more stable manner, and fall of the wire harness from the harness support member can be prevented.
According to the third aspect, because the wire harness will be slid and curved smoothly along the curved face or the inclined face, a catch of the wire harness with the distal end of the harness support member will be prevented. This will enable a slack absorption of the wire harness by the resilient member to be smoothly performed, and bending, breakage of the wire harness, occurrence of strange noises and so on will be prevented.
According to the fourth aspect, since the wire harness is deeply engaged in the recess, the wire harness will be stably retained without falling from the harness support member in a lateral direction. Accordingly, there will be no need of fixing the wire harness to the resilient member, thus facilitating assembling work of the wire harness.
According to the fifth aspect, the wire harness can be easily and reliably inserted into the harness support member along the guide faces, and the assembling workability will be enhanced.
According to the sixth aspect, because the wire harness can be retained along the entire circumference by the support member body and the lid, fall of the wire harness from the harness support member due to vibration of the vehicle during driving or violent opening and closing movements of the sliding door can be reliably prevented. Accordingly, a slack absorption of the wire harness can be always accurately performed and a catch of the wire harness between the sliding door and the vehicle body can be prevented. Moreover, there will be no need of fixing the wire harness to the resilient member, thus enhancing the assembling workability of the wire harness.
According to the seventh aspect, fixation of the support member body and the lid can be easily made by the locking means, thus enhancing the assembling workability.
According to the eighth aspect, the lid can be easily opened or closed with respect to the support member body by a single action. Therefore, the assembling workability and maintenance ability can be improved.
According to the ninth aspect, the harness support member can be fixed to the resilient member by a single action by means of the locking means, and the assembling workability will be enhanced.